Kalam`s maiden ride on Delhi Metro train

New Delhi: Former President A P J Abdul Kalam today had his maiden ride on the Delhi Metro train and was effusive about Delhi Metro Rail Corporation for creating a culture of excellence.

Kalam boarded the train at Central Secretariat station and travelled up to Rajiv Chowk where he saw the interchange arrangements for Jahangirpuri HUDA City Centre (Yellow Line) and Dwarka Sector 21 NOIDA City Centre (Blue Line) corridors.

From Rajiv Chowk, he travelled up to Ramakrishna Ashram Marg station to see the elevated section and then journeyed back to Barakhamba Road on the underground section.

"DMRC is indeed a great organization of excellence. It is environment-friendly, user-friendly and above all DMRC is an asset to the nation," Kalam wrote in the visitor’s book during the visit today.

Calling it one of the best transportation systems of the world at the most economic cost, Kalam appreciated Delhi Metro for maintaining a clean, safe and environment-friendly system.

DMRC has been rightly certified by the United Nations as the first Metro rail and rail-based system in the world to get "carbon credits for reducing greenhouse gas emissions" and helping in reducing pollution levels in the city by 630,000 tonnes of every year, he said in his address to DMRC employees on the topic Dynamics of Leadership at the Metro Bhawan here.

The former President congratulated DMRC for giving the country the potential of executing a fast transportation system using high technology with reliability within a stipulated time frame.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has brought the most advanced rail technologies for the first time, to India. The notable gains to the country are, light weight stainless steel, sleek, modern trains with pneumatic springs, regenerative braking, public information display, wide vestibules and automatic doors, he said.

Kalam also appreciated the metro rail system for developing sophisticated coach technology in the country, which was not available earlier.

Bharat Earth Movers Ltd., Bangalore, has been giving the task to assemble these trains with progressive indigenization.

BEML will supply coaches to Phase-III of Delhi Metro Rail and meet the requirement for Metro Rail projects coming up in other cities of the country.

Operating over a network of 190 kilometres, the Delhi Metro is spread across seven different corridors and in the past one year has maintained a punctuality rate of 99.7 percent.